Former Cowboys 1st-round pick Byron Jones denies retirement talk
The Dallas Cowboys had finally broken through. After three straight 8-8 seasons under new head coach Jason Garrett, Dallas finally returned to the playoffs in 2014. Rebuilt around Tony Romo, the club saw postseason action for the first time since 2009, but ended in familiar misery. Dez caught it, the NFL decided they didn’t want the Cowboys in the next round and to the offseason they went.
The Cowboys had a bit of an issue in the secondary that offseason. 2012 draft pick Morris Claiborne was a disappointment and missed 12 games that season. Instead, the Cowboys trotted out Sterling Moore opposite Brandon Carr, a solution that wasn’t a solution moving forward. The Cowboys acted on the need and selected Connecticut corner Byron Jones in the first round of 2015.
And now, just eight seasons later, Byron Jones seemed to be calling it a career. Jones missed all of the 2022 season due to injury, and though he didn’t officially use the word retire, he spoke in the past tense in regards to his playing career in giving a stern warning to the incoming 2023 draft class. But that’s not all she wrote.
Jones' "goodbye" tweet
Jones was an athletic marvel entering the league. During the scouting combine, he set a world record in the broad jump, landing 12-foot-3-inches in a legendary performance. That anniversary soon approaches, and a tweet from the NFL commemorating the achievement is what led to Jones’ admission that he is wildly suffering.
Jones spoke a warning to not let the NFL doctors pump a prospect full of pills and shots just to be able to play, worried about the long-term damage that can happen and apparently has happened to him.
Much has changed in 8 years. Today I can’t run or jump because of my injuries sustained playing this game. DO NOT take the pills they give you. DO NOT take the injections they give you. If you absolutely must, consult an outside doctor to learn the long-term implications. https://t.co/g5TTHDQGSY
— Byron Jones (@TheByronJones) February 25, 2023
It was an honor and privilege to play in the NFL but it came at a regrettable cost I did not foresee. In my opinion, no amount of professional success or financial gain is worth avoidable chronic pain and disabilities. Godspeed to the draft class of 2023.
— Byron Jones (@TheByronJones) February 25, 2023
Jones' career in Dallas
Jones entered the NFL as a corner but by the end of his rookie season with the Cowboys he had been transitioned to free safety. He played safety in Rod Marinelli’s defense for three seasons before the arrival of Kris Richard as the defensive passing game coordinator.
Richard moved him back to his original corner position and Jones immediately ascended to the top of the profession. In 2018 Jones made the Pro Bowl and was named Second-Team All-Pro.
Jones displayed absolutely sticky coverage as a boundary player with Dallas.
Leaving in free agency
The one thing Jones didn’t do was to create turnovers. He had just two interceptions in his five years with the Cowboys and one of those was a end-of-half hail mary heave into the end zone.
Dallas didn’t want to pay the salary Jones commanded without getting a high level of impact plays, and off Jones went to Miami. Jones signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Dolphins, but they didn’t get the bang expected for the buck.
Jones’ elite coverage metrics plummeted but he played 30 of 33 games over two seasons.
But an achilles injury a March surgery never corrected lingered, and he never stepped foot back on the football field.
The walkback
Jones, nicknamed the Senator for his ability to politick with the best of them, apparently didn’t think his word choices all the way through. According to ESPN reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques, Jones is not retiring despite the “former” tone he gave his warning.
Dolphins CB Byron Jones is not retiring, a source tells me — but he did offer words of caution to the 2023 draft class today, his first comments on his injury situation since undergoing Achilles surgery last March https://t.co/cHHesR3rxC
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) February 25, 2023
Prior to the cryptic tweets, the expectation was that the Dolphins were preparing to release Jones from his contract. Miami is facing $14.8 million in dead money should they make the move, unless it’s designated as a June 1 release that would split the hit into a $4.8 million hit this year and $10 million in 2024.
If either happens, and Jones is indeed still playing, he’s free to sign with any club, including the CB-needy Cowboys. The question is, if he indeed intends to return, is what level teams would be interested in knowing they aren’t going to be able to treat future injuries the sordid ways they have in the past.
